The Syllabus of Errors is an encyclical written by Pope Pius IX in 1862. He claimed it was infallible, and stressed this, unlike most encyclicals. Furthermore, in 2000, Pope John Paul made Pius IX a saint, effectively doubling down on the infallibility of his proclamations. The Syllabus is a remarkable document, since much of it seems to consist of self-evident truths. You have to remind yourself that they are all infallibly declared to be ERRORS, and damnable heresies. From time to time I will note some of these errors.

Article 7- "The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the Sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets.... In the books of the Old and the New Testament there are contained mythical inventions."

In other words, the Bible is literally true, and it is an ERROR to deny this. This is noteworthy since virtually all commentators, including Catholics, insist that the Bible cannot and should not be taken literally. For example, Karen Armstrong, a former nun, not only maintained that this should not be done, she claimed that no one did it until relatively recently. (See Review-Karen Armtrong\'s Bible).

Today, Catholics readily acknowledge that much of the Bible is not literally true - even though The Syllabus of Errors remains in force and is officially quasi-infallible. But many, if not most evangelicals, still insist that the Bible is the literal word of God, and must be taken literally.